She Dared Women in Indian Sports

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These are the stories of leading women of Indian sports, starting with the golden girls, P.T. Usha, M.D. Valsamma, Shiny Wilson and Vandana Rao, to Ashwini Nachappa, Anju Bobby George, Karnam Malleswari, M.C. Mary Kom, Sania Mirza, Saina Nehwal, P.V. Sindhu, Deepa Malik, Sakshi Malik, Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponnappa, Dipa Karmakar, Dutee Chand, Deepika Kumari, Santhi Soundarajan, Hima Das, Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, Rani Rampal, Manu Bhaker, Apurvi Chandela and Anjum Moudgil.

Senior journalists Abhishek Dubey and Sanjeeb Mukherjea travel the length and breadth of the country to bring out stories that have taken shape after a series of conversations with these leading sportspersons over a period of time. The two interact with their family members, support staff and their coaches, and report from ground zero, gathering facts from the most authentic sources to get a first-hand feel of their struggles and undying aspirations.

Abhishek Dubey is India's foremost sports journalist who has covered international sports for over fifteen years now. A topper in MA, History, from Hansraj College, he fancied himself as a right arm fast bowler and a hard-hitting lower order batsman. Instead, he plunged headlong into sports journalism, at a very young age, and ended up leading cross-functional teams in organizations like NDTV and IBN7 (Network18), to name a few. A regular columnist with leading dailies and news magazines, his earlier works include the critically acclaimed Dressing Room: The Inside Story and The IPL Story: Cricket, Glamour and Big Money. He is currently the National Advisor at Prasar Bharati Sports, India's state broadcaster.

Sanjeeb Mukherjea is an award-winning journalist and anchor who has covered sports for well over a decade now. Formerly the cricket editor at CNN-IBN, he has now struck out on his own as a broadcaster, currently as one of the lead anchor-commentators on the Star Sports network. Prior to this, he has also anchored live shows on Doordarshan and ESPN Cricinfo. He has also dabbled in print and advertising, as well as in radio journalism.

There is a fair bit of literature on Indian athletes. With the emergence of a new bunch of athletes who are challenging the established names in sports, India has much to be hopeful about regarding its prospects at international sporting events. During a discussion over tea on a sultry evening, about the literature on sportspersons who have shone and stood shoulder to shoulder with the best in the world, we realized how remarkable the emergence of Indian women athletes has been. It turned out that more often than not, success was achieved despite the system, rather than because of it. Indian women athletes have challenged societal norms as well as unsurmountable obstacles to carve a place for themselves in the pantheon of India's sporting history. And having been sports journalists and colleagues for a long time, we realized that we knew a fair bit about them. From how it all started, to how these remarkable women shook off taboos, apathy and ignorance to perch themselves atop the highest branch of their respective sports, we realized it was time we found out more about them and shared the knowledge.